Dry food causes FLUTD?

Little Feroz is doing good since the last time I checked in here. My vet just told me something that I thought I would share.

My vet (a fairly old guy who's been at it for years) said that feeding a cat all or mostly dry food, especially a male, is a certain recipe for FLUTD. He recommended that I feed him at least 50% wet, if not 100%. I had planned on 50/50 anyway.

My sister has always fed her cats with 100% dry. The male has had numerous (and expensive) episodes of FLUTD. Her vet said that 100% dry wouldn't be a problem as long as he's got enough water to drink.

I think my vet is correct. What do you think?

Many years ago, I had a cat named Kitty that we lost due to FLUTD. Kitty's bladder had become completely blocked and she died immediately following emergency surgery. Kitty had also been fed 100% dry food, but always had plenty of fresh water available. The two cats I have had since Kitty's death have been fed the same way and never developed any FLUTD related problems. I have heard that feeding a cat certain brands can cause crystals to develop which might lead to a blockage. Another thing I have heard is that once a cat develops FLUTD, it is likely to reoccur.

I think my vet is correct. What do you think?

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I think the information your vet gave you makes sense, but it also depends on the quality of the dry food you are feeding.

My understanding of this is that it depends on the quality of the food. I had trouble with FLUTD several years back when I was broke & fed my cats a generic cat food (ended up spending a lot more paying off vet bills than I ever saved on food!). If you feed a high-quality dry food and provide plenty of fresh water you shouldn't have problems with an otherwise healthy cat.

That having been said, some cats that do have a tendency to develop stones may need special prescription food - the type of food is selected after analysis of the crystals in the urine. Giving wet food may help in these cases too. Also, if your water is very high in minerals, you may wish to give distilled water to drink.

You figure that in the wild a cat eats mice, birds, and small prey as well as insects, even earthworms are on a wild cats diet. This type of food item for them consists of about 70% water.

Now here comes a human who captures up the cats, and dumps dry food into a bowl in front of them and adds water on the side, it is just not the same.

My guys get wet and dry food, except the Trips who get strictly wet food for now. Just my personal preference after reading some studies done on dry food and doing other research.

I also give dry and wet, and had a UTI with my Leo, so they all get the prescription food to prevent crystals. (no problem since the switch) I do believe wet is better, but dry is more convient and cheaper for us, so to compromise I give both, and also think even if you give them wet just a few times a week it is much better than none at all. Also if a cat gets sick and needs meds, it is easy to hide in wet food, but not dry, and if the cat isn't use to eating any wet, some can be very difficult to switch or even to try as a treat.
I also notice more urine in the litter box on the days I give wet food, and it seems they drink about the same fresh water when they get wet and when they don't, so the extra is from the wet food.

I feed the big cats mostly dry. They do get some wet mixed with alittle warmer water and gse. The kittens get mostly wet.

Corkscrew and Tibby do get wet food, but not a lot. They split a 3 oz. can daily. I like giving them the wet food because I can mix Corkscrews vitamins into it. I put Corkscrew on vitamins after I found out he had a Coronavirus. He got really sick and I put him on vitamins then for some reason stopped and he got really sick again. So now I make sure he gets his vitamins daily in his wet food and he looks great and hasn't gotten sick since. Plus they both seem to really like the wet food.

Hi,

I had problems with FLUTD in my moggy Nicholas. After several trips to the vet, I contacted the head feline vet at our local university (probably the most specialist feline vet you will get in Australia), and he told me to get Nick off dry food completely. He was to be fed canned food & raw only (no fishy flavours at all). Since he's been on a wet diet only, he's not had a problem with FLUTD. What Hissy said is spot on.

Also, it is now believed that dry food can cause diabetes in cats. I feed my other cats dry, but their access to it is limited. Dry food is too high in carbohydrates, cats need a high protein diet, not a high carb diet.

Here's some links on feline nutrition, some of these links relate to dry food.

Nutrition Links

Julia.

I just wanted to add that although there is great advice here, don't take everything out there as gospil. There's been numerous studies on FLUTD in cats, and none of them have come up 100% conclusive.
While a 100% wet diet may be good for one cat, it may not be good for another. They are all different and respond different.
There are several things that can cause it, and it's always best to have your vet analyze the urine and determine the cause. Then you can treat it according to the cause.

It is the amount of magnesium in the dry food that can cause problems. (crystals to form and the cat to get blocked) Cats should be on a low magnesium dry food (they used to say ash content). I think it is .01 or less. Most quality dry foods don't exceed that amount. I used to work for a vet and at the time, it was mostly the grocery store foods that were bad. Meow Mix was notoriously a bad one.